Page 55 - SHELTER

POLICY REVIEW

URBAN INDIA’S MUCH NEEDED RENTAL

HOUSING PUSH

DR. DEBARPITA ROY Alarmingly, share of rental housing is the below poverty line households,
low among the urban low income and
provisioning of schools and skilling
MR. MANIKANDAN KP poor households, although the need for centres as a part of the complexes and
rental housing is the greatest among the location of these complexes. In case
them. This prevailing sad state of rental of MTA, the article highlights a few of
housing situation came into spotlight immediate changes and a few long-term
Rental housing will play following the nationwide lockdown ones, to improve MTA’s efficacy.
imposed in March this year. COVID-19
an instrumental role in brought about unprecedented health INTRODUCTION
addressing urban India’s and economic crisis and re-focussed
housing gaps. Effective attention on the gaps in access to Rental housing is the most
mplementation of secure and adequate housing faced by affordable form of housing for
ARHC and MTA, India’s urban poor and migrants. To households, particularly low-
income ones. But insufficient
keeping the interest address this the Union Government availability of affordable and
of urban low-income launched the Affordable Rental secure rental housing is a major
Housing Complexes (AHRCs) scheme.
households in mind, is ARHC is one of the two most recent issue plaguing urban India.
the much needed next and much needed rental market policy Further, housing policy till
step. interventions. The other being the recently has been largely geared
Model Tenancy Act (MTA) put forth towards promoting housing
in July 2019. This article discusses ownership. Supported by
both initiatives and certain aspects of economic growth this resulted in
each which require further attention for a steady decline in proportion of
greater effectiveness. In case of AHRCs
special attention needs to be paid to rental housing (Graph 1).
Graph 1: Urban rental housing in India

100 40%
Number of Houses (in Million) 70 25% Rental housing
90
35%
80
30%
60
50
20%
Key Words: Rental Housing, ARHC, 40 15%
Affordability, Model Tenancy Act. 30 10%
20
5%
Dr. Debarpita Roy (droy@icrier.res.in) 10 0 0%
is Fellow, Indian Council for Research 1991 2001 2011
on International Economic Relations Owned Rented Others Percentage of owned houses
(ICRIER). Mr. Manikandan KP (mani@ Source: Census 1991, 2001 and 2011
ihf.in) is Institution Builder, Indian 1 Views are personal. The authors thank Meera ML of ICRIER and Simran Pal Kaur of IHF for their
Housing Federation (IHF). research assistance. Debarpita Roy’s contribution to this article has been made possible by the support 53 53
extended to ICRIER by the Ford Foundation for research and dissemination on challenges to affordable
housing in urban areas of India.
October 2020 Volume 21 No. 2-SHELTER 53